Part Three of Seven

2010 was a year of change for our sister parish in many ways. The new decade opened with devesting shock on January 12^th at 4:53pm as a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti leaving death and destruction in its wake. Frantic phone calls were made to see if any of the people we knew in our sister parish were killed. Miraculously none of them were but all of them had lost family members.

What had become our annual visit in January was cancelled as we waited for more news and the eventual requests for help in the aftermath. By the end of February things had settle down enough to allow flights into Haiti again. March 10^th – 16^th a small team of two visited our sister parish at the invitation of Fr. Jecrois who wanted the people to see we were not going to forget them. God had special plans for that visit….

When we arrived in Ducrabon we met Sister Maria Leal Paraiso, a Carmelite sister who was sent to this village to assess its viability as a site for a hospital that Rotary International wanted to build. She asked us many questions and let us know that part of her reason to recommend this site was that the parish of Notre Dame de Lourdes had a strong sister parish and she was confident that the schools and the chapels would continue and would need the services of a hospital. It would be the next year, 2011, that Amilien Desius, a Ducrabon native, would begin his journey to becoming a doctor at the Quisqueya medical college in Petionville. The following year in February 2012, Franckel Ulysse would begin his medical education at Quisqueya also.

2010 had more big changes in store for us. On August 13^th, 2010 we would learn that Fr. Jecrois was being reassigned already! We had only known him for a short time, but he was so dynamic and energetic we were going to miss his style a LOT. On December 27^th God smiled on us and we learned that Father Marc Claudy Magloire would be the new pastor.

By now we had visited our sister parish 8 times. We had done 7 Lenten Alms fundraisers, 5 Fall fundraisers and 4 Sea-crates sending 154 boxes on April 5^th, 2011. We were doing good, but All Saints and St. Mary’s felt we needed more help.

This is where you all come in.  Our mission in Haiti is EDUCATION – particularly helping improve teacher salaries.  If we have teachers, the communities will have schools.  The children will have role models that make a difference in their lives.  They will see teachers as persons to emulate and will want to become teachers themselves.  And with adequate pay for their work, teachers can make a better living and provide for their families.

Please click on the link below to contribute.

https://allsaintscr.com/resources/donate/

Contributions may be mailed to:
All Saints Haiti Committee
720 29th St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52403
Please include the notation “Education Support Fund.”

Renmen Bondye, Sèvi Lòt Moun, Fòm Disip
Love God, Serve Others, Form Disciples.